Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) composed his Messe near the end of his life, in 1864. It was his last major composition. Rossini enjoyed a long, comfortable retirement in Paris where he was a well known figure at musical salons. When he composed his Messe it had been twenty-three years since his last major work (the Stabat Mater) and over thirty since his last opera. During these "retirement years" he composed over 150 chamber works which he referred to as his "sins of old age".
The Petite Messe Solennelle was dedicated to Comtesse Louise Pillet-Will, and was first performed on March 14, 1864 at the town house of the Comtesse and her husband, Comte Michel-Frédéric. Rossini apparently led all the rehearsals and turned pages for the principal pianist at the premiere. The work was an immediate success.
It is unique in the choral repertoire, primarily because of its unusual accompaniment: two pianos and harmonium. Later, Rossini orchestrated the work, but, like Honegger's King David, the distinctive, particular character of the original version was obliterated when a large orchestration was later made. The particular timbre of the piano and the reedy sound of a harmonium are organically one with the musical material. In nineteenth-century Paris, harmoniums - or reed pump organs - were very common. They were common in people's homes and in chapels or rooms where a pipe organ was not possible. For this piece, the timbre of a harmonium - thinner and reedier than a pipe organ - is exactly right for the piece when combined with one or two pianos.
The Messe is also unusual in the choral repertoire for its mixture of "sacred and profane". Some sections seem not so far from other Italian sacred choral works of the period; but other sections could easily have come straight out of one of Rossini's operas. And the finale of the Gloria section ("Cum Sancto Spiritu"), although composed as a traditional choral fugue, has such a rollicking tune and builds in such an operatic manner, that, at its conclusion, one expects a velvet curtain to fall amidst bravos.
Ultimately, each conductor has to decide how serious or how much fun he wants to make the piece. For me, after living with the work for forty years, I believe that Rossini had no trouble being deeply serious one moment and having great fun the next. This is the aspect of the piece that has interested me for so many years and which I look forward to sharing with you.
by Dennis Keene, for the March 22, 2010 program